Looks like I wont get a chance to play Mission 4 until the Easter weekend.
Too many things to do around the farm & the Antique Machinery Club shed at the moment plus Wargames Club last night.
However we did manage to bag two Gotha's so that made our night.

"Its a fine line indeed between going out in a Blaze of Glory or having Crashed & Burnt!"
Member Australian Society of WW1 Aero Historians

Looks like I wont get a chance to play Mission 4 until the Easter weekend.
Too many things to do around the farm & the Antique Machinery Club shed at the moment plus Wargames Club last night.
However we did manage to bag two Gotha's so that made our night.

I've finished mission 4, just have to get the photo edited, the narrative written and the post made. It might be considerably delayed, I have the games at Congress of Gamers to run on the weekend, and naturally enough, Monday/Tuesday is tax day. Busy, busy, busy.

Busy, busy, busy. Everyone is busy I've started the next batch of trench mats - hoping they might be ready for the next mission, but reckon that is a bit of a tall order. Also wanted to get at least one RE7 painted - that should happen. OTT DYM certainly has motivated me. Cheers team.

Busy, busy, busy. Everyone is busy I've started the next batch of trench mats - hoping they might be ready for the next mission, but reckon that is a bit of a tall order. Also wanted to get at least one RE7 painted - that should happen. OTT DYM certainly has motivated me. Cheers team.

Looking forward to your RE7. Can't say I've seen one of those.

Yes, busy busy. Recovering from Cold Wars and Havoc. More recovering from a cold I got at Havoc. I really dislike it when a player sits at the table coughing up a lung. Hope to get to mission 3 soon.

Hope that cold goes away quickly Peter - there is a nasty one doing the rounds - I know, I had it too a few weeks back. Re the RE7 - I posted a couple of pics on the following thread. Not yet painted but it'll give you an idea:

It is one of Daryl's creations ("Reduced Aircraft Factory") and a good looking model too. I was experimenting by using Sculpteo, in France, to produce it in their better material. I reckon its good for larger aircraft but expensive for the smaller ones, given the postage and tax added. The big advantage will be not having to spend quite so much time preparing it before painting Anyway, the details are on that thread.

You would not like me at present then Pete. I started a sore throat on the Wednesday at Prague, by the Sunday my voice had gone, and I have been coughing like I have Whooping Cough ever since.
Hope you feel better soon.

Rob.

"Courage is the art of being the only one who knows you're scared to death."

My table is already set up waiting for this Pete. As soon as my package arrives from Clipper I'm off to Scotland for a month and as Flying Helmet got his yesterday I'm expecting mine today or tomorrow. I'm hoping for tomorrow because I don't think Mrs Vagabond will accept playing a game with my aeroplanes as a good excuse to delay our trip further, she was not too pleased to be waiting for a parcel from the States this year either, we delayed last years trip for another parcel of planes from the States.

she was not too pleased to be waiting for a parcel from the States this year either, we delayed last years trip for another parcel of planes from the States.

You're a "braver" man than I am Gunga John". Mrs Vagabond definitely has a strong sympathiser in Mrs Mikeemagnus.

"What, delay a trip abroad just for a few "toys"" - I can hear it now

In the meantime, I cannot help but wonder about the health of the team that was reporting in with coughs and colds and man flu etc a short while ago. Are we all better now? - I do hope so. My toe is almost back to normal again I'm glad to say And what was the outcome of the building work for the winco's new hangar?

Well the good news is - my package from Clipper arrived today, the bad news is - my package from Clipper arrived today. I don't know how far behind UK time Oregon is but I'm guessing 7 hours which means I'm not going to see Pete's scenario until it's too late to play it tonight. There is a slight possibility if I run around like a mad thing I can get everything done in time to play tomorrow night but it's looking like a forlorn hope at the moment.
Such is life when you're retired, too much to do and not enough time to do it in, just like when I worked for a living.

Sorry, guys, but this gamer still has a full-time job.
Looking a bit more seriously into retirement after a visit from some (retired) Canadian friends.
I have reached the magic number the US government assigns for such things, and am waiting to see what Mr. Trudeau and Co. will be adding to my income ....
I was going to keep working until my younger SWMBO reached retirement age, but now have planted an ‘early retirement’ seed ...

Excuse me as a mere retired outsider with Canadian in law relatives, but where does Mr Trudeau figure in your retirement plan Pete? I thought the US Government would be funding you! Or did you perchance once work in Canada?
Rob.

"Courage is the art of being the only one who knows you're scared to death."

Question please: I see that F/Sgt Henry Roe is no longer considered a "Rookie", but Bo Fletcher is still one. Does that mean that Bo is expected to fly in mission six and thereafter until he is no longer a rookie, or was it just Henry to which that rule applied?
Roll on mission 6 - can't believe we are already almost half way through this campaign

Question please: I see that F/Sgt Henry Roe is no longer considered a "Rookie", but Bo Fletcher is still one. Does that mean that Bo is expected to fly in mission six and thereafter until he is no longer a rookie, or was it just Henry to which that rule applied?

I've been trying to remove the rookie status from all the other pilots once your named pilot has shaken his or after three weeks Mike so must've missed Bo - it has had that removed now.

I've posted mission 6, a bit early but last night the power supply blew and I couldn't get the old laptop's battery to last long enough to finish the typing. I'm in an out of the way boat yard with a very slow internet and so I had to go to the local pub to get a reasonable internet speed to finish the post and upload it.
Just finished my 4th glass of wine so if anything is out of kilter it's a sacrifice I made for OTT and WoW

I've posted mission 6, a bit early but last night the power supply blew and I couldn't get the old laptop's battery to last long enough to finish the typing. I'm in an out of the way boat yard with a very slow internet and so I had to go to the local pub to get a reasonable internet speed to finish the post and upload it.
Just finished my 4th glass of wine so if anything is out of kilter it's a sacrifice I made for OTT and WoW

Oh life is so tough when you have to go to a Pub to finish a job!!!!

"Its a fine line indeed between going out in a Blaze of Glory or having Crashed & Burnt!"
Member Australian Society of WW1 Aero Historians

I've posted mission 6, a bit early but last night the power supply blew and I couldn't get the old laptop's battery to last long enough to finish the typing. I'm in an out of the way boat yard with a very slow internet and so I had to go to the local pub to get a reasonable internet speed to finish the post and upload it.
Just finished my 4th glass of wine so if anything is out of kilter it's a sacrifice I made for OTT and WoW

You are setting a precedent for scenario writing. 4 glasses of wine in a pub! What's a scenario designer to do from now on?

Leaving poor John's brief thread alone I just wanted to post one more thing about the Ares/Nexus bombing ..
I found some interesting stuff about altitude and ground scale but when I went to start writing up any kind of explanation to account for the official rule this stuck out like a red flag:

Picking up from Dave's explanation with the diagram in the ohter thread...

An XB straight is 1.3cm, the bomb card is 6.8cm

So a bomb (with no engine) flies not only faster than the plane carrying it, but faster than a SPAD XIII or SE.5a (which are 6.0cm) ?

Leaving poor John's brief thread alone I just wanted to post one more thing about the Ares/Nexus bombing ..
I found some interesting stuff about altitude and ground scale but when I went to start writing up any kind of explanation to account for the official rule this stuck out like a red flag:

Picking up from Dave's explanation with the diagram in the ohter thread...

So a bomb (with no engine) flies not only faster than the plane carrying it, but faster than a SPAD XIII or SE.5a (which are 6.0cm) ?

Okay, maybe I am having a brain cramp, but the bomb card is the same size as an aircraft base.

What really does it for me in the visual example is that the bomb ends up in front of the plane.
This is not a Hawker Typhoon firing rockets, but a slow moving aircraft dropping a dead weight.
No way does the bomb not end up behind the plane.

I don't disagree (hence my ED special rules) but if it bothers you so much Pete ask Andrea - He wrote the rules, Don's diagram just shows how to play them !
For what it's worth, I think Andrea had to contend with many things to keep it simple - for instance, you don't have to lift the model out of the way to play the bomb card or slide it under - it's all about compromises. That card not only has to represent the falling bombs but their impact zone (if it were a cluster of bombs the impact zone would get greater with the altitude..oh no ! What have I done ?! )
Thing is it works, we can blow sh1t up. Who needs more than that ?!

I guess it’s the “let’s fix it and make it better” side of me, Dave.
A simple fix would be to place the bomb behind the plane in the Declare Bombing phase.
First turn use the actual movement (straight or stall) and subsequent use stalls.

I guess it’s the “let’s fix it and make it better” side of me, Dave.
A simple fix would be to place the bomb behind the plane in the Declare Bombing phase.
First turn use the actual movement (straight or stall) and subsequent use stalls.

Pete, I've thought it over and realized that the bombing rule compromises on both speed and time to fall. Yes, we could come up with a more realistic speed but we would also need a more realistic time to fall, which as calculated for 3,000m would be > 0.5 minutes taking air resistance (terminal velocity) into account. Given the 1-2 seconds per phase that means at least a dozen phases - perhaps 2-3 X that - before the bombs hit. Is that worth doing?

I took the SPAD XIII maximum speed and using the 1-2 second per phase to calculate that the ground scale is between 1-to-500 and 1-to-1000 in order to be consistent with the speed and time per phase. Okay...with that I calculated that a SPAD XIII dropping a bomb while travelling at top speed (crazy - but just to use the maximum case) from altitude 8 (3000m) takes 4 phases and travels (using the ground scale) of 250-500m horizontally. Yes, that's unrealistic for 4-8 seconds but it's equally unrealistic that it reaches the ground in 4-8 seconds. As we both calculated it would 24 seconds (in a vacuum), so longer with air resistance. Let's say it really takes 4 X the 4 phases (i.e., 32 seconds using 2 seconds / phase) that equates to less than 50 kph even though in terms of game mechanics it looks like the bomb is going 200 kph - all so that the bomb reaches the ground in a reasonable number of turns for game play.

With respect to placing the bomb in front of the plane, don't forget that at altitude 2 the bomb hits immediately but using physics it should be > 10 seconds (5 phases).

If we're going to 'fix' the speed of the bombs we also have to 'fix' the time to fall. To me it seems the game exaggerations cancel each other out (i.e., if your travelling in an aircraft and your dropping your bombs it will hit a target ahead of where you release and given the altitude quite a ways ahead of where the aircraft is at that instant. That's the important part of a game....is the game modelling the decisions the player has to make.

Does that make sense?

Apologies for beating a dead horse - you can blame my military operational research career where I spent a lot of time thinking about such things has how to model this or that.